


Broken Hymns

by orphan_account



Category: Iron Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Alternate Universe, Depression, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Kid Loki, Past Child Abuse, Teen Loki
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-23
Updated: 2014-08-11
Packaged: 2018-02-10 01:41:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2006169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's hard to figure out who you are when people are trying to figure it out for you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Round Here

**Author's Note:**

> This is a part of a pre-established AU in which Tony Stark has a teenage daughter named Dresden. It takes place post-Avengers and pre-IM3 and mostly follows the movies, with the exception of a couple of things from The Invincible Iron Man.
> 
> I've never posted any of it before but I feel comfortable with posting this one. I'm not absolutely positive where this is going, but I'm planning on updating regularly so stick with me. Comments/reviews are appreciated!
> 
> The Pandora Station that I write to, in case anyone was wondering:  
> http://www.pandora.com/station/1620233875832833877

With a yawn Dresden pushed herself away from her desk and stretched back. She wasn’t quite sure how long she’d been in her room but it had been long enough for her to score an entire independent film her group had made for one of their classes. The project due date was coming up quickly but Dresden had consistently procrastinated her part for the past 2 weeks so in order to force herself to do the work, she had locked herself in her room and done it in one sitting. Of course this had required a couple dozen energy drinks and a couple of power naps, but it was done now. 

"Jarvis," Dresden singsonged as she saved and shut her laptop. It was probably time that she ate some real food and checked in with her father and friends. The later never understood her tendency to disappear for days at a time. They didn’t see the appeal of working on projects for days on end and didn’t get her need to take a break from life. Sometimes the mountain of stress became too much for her to deal with so she would take breaks from reality. These breaks offered her time away from friends and relationships that always seemed to hurt her, and time away from the expectations of her father and teachers. It even gave her a break from her constant judgment of herself. 

"Yes Miss Stark?" The AI asked as Dresden made her way through the house to the kitchen. It became clear to her that she had been in her room for a long time because she felt mildly delirious. 

“What day is it?” she asked, making a list of things she needed to do. She’d go to the kitchen and make herself some tea, then go check base with her father. It wasn’t that he would have been worried about her. He knew exactly what she was doing; he himself was the king of avoiding responsibilities. So no, he wouldn’t be worried, but he might be mildly concerned. After all, she’d skipped school, hadn’t slept, and hadn’t had real food in a week.

"Today is March 2nd, 2013.”

“Nice," Dresden muttered. It had been February 29th when she went into her room to work. "Is my father home?” She asked as she pulled herself onto a counter in the kitchen to grab a mug from a particularly high cupboard. 

"He is currently in his workshop downstairs," Jarvis answered. As he did, something in her subconscious clicked and she became aware of the fact that she was not alone in the kitchen. Slowly, she slid back down to the floor and turned around to face the teenage boy sitting on a stool at the island in the middle of the kitchen. They stared at each other for a moment, Dresden with a mixture of embarrassment and worry about the stranger in her kitchen, the boy with an almost imperious curiosity.

"Who are you?" Dresden asked eventually, realizing that he looked familiar. Before long she had convinced herself that she knew him from somewhere. Maybe he was one of Pepper’s relatives or the child of on of the cleaners. The later didn’t fit very well though because even just sitting, the boy gave off an air of superiority and elegance.

"Who are you?" he returned, seeming to lose his interest in her.

Dresden sighed, "Dresden Stark," she answered, slightly annoyed he hadn’t answered. She held her hand out to him and made eye contact. His eyes were a shocking shade of green and she quickly averted her eyes, uncomfortable. 

He looked at her hand then back up to her, disgust clear on his face, "I'd rather not," he said before getting off of his stool and walking out of the room without a backwards glance. 

"Pleasure to meet you," Dresden called after him sarcastically. He was definitely entitled. The only people she had met who gave first impressions like that were the snobby group of rich kids at her school. With a sigh, she left her empty tea mug and headed down to her father’s office hoping to get an answer as to who the boy was. Down the stairs, she punched in the code to the office door and pushed it open. "What's with Mr Sunshine upstairs?" she asked, crossing the office and sitting across the desk from her father. 

Music blasted through the room and her father seemed to be completely absorbed with a hologram projected in front of him. Seeing her enter, he paused the music and closed the hologram. "Nice to see you've emerged from your cave," he remarked, "Pepper's worried about your emotional well being and I think you're going to have to start going to school more."

"Pepper's always worried about my emotional well being. So this kid, upstairs, in my kitchen. Care to explain?"

"Nope, not really." Tony replied simply, “Pepper wants me to ask you if you’re depressed"

“We all know I’m probably depressed,” she replied offhandedly before raising an eyebrow, "Why won’t you explain?" she questioned.

"If I tell you, you'll be mad at me for weeks, but if I wait and let Pepper explain it to you it won’t matter because you’re constantly mad at Pepper,” he replied as he leaned back in his chair, “Do you actually think you’re depressed?”

“Don’t you?” she asked letting silence follow. She leaned back in her chair and evaluated him, decided not to pursue the issue of the stranger further. Sure, there was a stranger in her house, and she felt like she recognized him from somewhere, but that didn't matter. Pressing her dad for information would just make him angry, and she hated it when he yelled at her. Plus she would probably figure out who he was before long. 

"I’m guessing you don’t want Pepper to know you think you’re depressed?” he asked eventually.

“I don’t think I’m depressed, I just probably am,” she replied, knowing that she was bending the truth. She kind of knew she was depressed and had been for a while. However, if she did anything else other than play it off people would start to worry about her and she didn’t need that. She’d been looking after herself almost since she was 7 and could live without others looking after her. “How was DC?” she asked, changing the subject.

“It was DC,” he sighed, pulling up the hologram again, “The government is pushing some sort of superhero registration act. Because that worked so well with the mutants. What were you working on in your room.”

“That movie I told you about, it’s due soon,” she replied, letting her thoughts trail off. It was a characteristic she shared with her father, doing one thing at a time just wasn’t enough. He got distracted with tangible things, like the hologram he was working on. She got distracted by thoughts like the slow realization of where she knew the boy from. Green eyes. 

“You’re falling behind in school again, aren’t you?” her father asked.

“Yeah I am, but it’s only because I was trying to break one of my records,” she replied. Green eyes, dark hair.

“Which record?”

“6 seasons of a TV show in 2 weeks,” she replied. Green eyes, dark hair, oh so pleasant demeanor. 

“Was it worth the lecture Pepper is going to give you?”

“So worth it,” she replied. Disturbingly green eyes, dark hair that was longer than was in fashion, the demeanor and the air of superiority. Finally, she placed the characteristics but it didn’t make sense. The age was no where near right and neither was the place, but part of her knew she was right. “Dad,” she asked accusingly. 

"Yes?” he asked, once again completely absorbed in his work.

"Upstairs, that boy. Was it Loki?”

Tony paused for a minute, unsure of what to do. It was obvious that he really hadn’t expected her to figure it out and wasn’t ready for this conversation, “Look Drez, you can’t get mad at me but I really can’t do this right now.” 

“You can’t do this?” she asked, glaring at him, “Loki is in our house, and you can’t do this?”

Tony cringed, knowing that had been a bad choice of words, “It’s just really complicated.”

“Then you should start explaining now,” she replied, crossing her arms. This was not something that she was just going to leave. It was major and she wanted her explanation now. Although she was generally passive, there was no way she could be passive about that psychopath in her house.

Tony sighed, evaluated her expression and tried to decide where to start, “He’s not really Loki anymore, Drez.”

“The fuck does that mean?” she snapped.

Tony sighed again, “Can you please just wait for Pepper to get home? She’s better prepared for this.”

“No, dad, I can’t fucking wait for Pepper to get home,” Dresden exclaimed, “Just explain to me why the hell that sociopath is in my house!”

"Dresden,” Tony said in a warning tone, “I need you to calm down.”

"I'm not going to calm down until you explain this to me, Tony!"

"Well, I’m not explaining it to you until you lose the snark.” Tony replied, giving her a look. 

Dresden glared at him for a moment then decided it would be in her best interest to stop yelling at her father. He was silent for a while, so she gave him an expectant look, “Well?”

"You know that I wouldn't ever do anything that put you in danger too, right?" he asked.

This was a fact that she was all too aware of. It was one of the biggest difference between her mother and father. No matter what, her father did everything in his power to keep Dresden out of danger. She nodded at her father who nodded back.

"Okay. Did you happen to notice the fact that the boy upstairs is a kid? He's not the Loki that attacked New York," Tony continued.

That was true, Dresden hadn't thought to ask about that. In the moment, she'd forgotten that little detail. Right now, Loki was a lot of years younger than he normally was.

"When they went back to Asgard, Thor meddled, a lot, and managed to work out a deal with the High Court. Loki got to live, but he was turned back to a time when he wasn’t bat-shit crazy, basically erasing the Loki who wanted to rule earth. Then they exiled him here, to learn humility or something like that.”

"TI find it worrying that I don’t think that whole magical Asgard thing is weird anymore," she muttered. 

"I think it might work,” her father continued, “You should hear Thor talk about Loki when they were younger, it sounds like he might have actually been a decent person," Tony said, clicking a couple of buttons on his computer. Dresden thought about that for a second. Thor wasn't exactly the smartest person, but the High Court of Asgard? There had to be some intelligent people there, and they would never do this if they didn't think it would work.

"Well, why is he here?" Dresden sighed, realizing that there was a good chance nothing bad would happen, and that this was something she had no control over.

"Fury wanted him to stay at S.H.I.E.L.D, but Thor wouldn't have it, he said Loki needed to live with a family for this to work. So, they decided to put Loki with someone they thought could control him, and would also report back to S.H.I.E.L.D about him. I already have a kid, so they decided I was most qualified," he said unimpressed, and it was obvious that he hadn't wanted Loki to come to the house, which made her feel a little better. This wasn’t a situation he wanted, nor had any control over either.

Dresden laughed, "They think you're a qualified parent? Have they ever met you?"

Tony shot her a look and moved something around on his hologram, "Trust me, I fought this. One teenager is enough angst for me."

"But I mean, how do you know he's not going to pull something, or remember who he really is?" Dresden asked, rolling her eyes at the shot he'd just taken at her.

"We don't, Drez. I mean, you have to be careful what you mention around him, just so you don't trigger anything, so don't talk about all the bad things he's done, okay? I wouldn't do this if I didn't think I could keep you and Pepper safe."

Dresden nodded, hearing the truth in his voice. He was obviously convinced that this wouldn't turn out badly for them, so she would give it a chance. "He's really not the same person anymore, is he?"

Tony nodded, "As far as I know," he said, twirling his hologram, his attention once again shifting.

"Just a normal teenager?" she asked again. She wanted to make sure her dad was convinced he wasn't Loki anymore.

"I don't know any normal teenagers to judge him off," he replied without looking away from his computer. Dresden glared at him, and he glanced at her a slight smirk on his face, "What?"

"I'm trying to be serious!" she snapped.

"So am I," he smirked. "You are literally the only teenager I know. Loki doesn't talk much, he's a bit passive aggressive, and pretty much all he's done since he's been here is read."

Dresden pursed her lips, unsure of what to say. She was annoyed with him for being so relaxed about the whole thing, but also glad he seemed so sure. At this point, even his word would help her cope a little bit.

"Any more questions?" Tony asked.

Dresden thought about it for a second, "I don't think so."

"Well, I'll be here if you think of any. Don't bother me unless it's important though," he replied fiddling with the diagram again Dresden got out of her chair, and without looking at her, Tony tapped a finger on his cheek, "Kiss."

She rolled her eyes but kissed him on the cheek anyways, "I love you."

"Love you too," Tony replied and she turned to leave. "Play nice!" He called after her, and even though she rolled her eyes, she made a mental note to try and be pleasant.


	2. Prayers Flow Better

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise that the story is going to speed up soon!

It was a sharp knock that finally pulled Dresden from her sleep. She slowly opened her eyes and stared at the wall in front of her, mourning the sleep that she had been pulled from. Last night had been the first full night’s sleep that she had gotten in months and it had been much needed. Despite it’s necessity, it left Dresden longing to do nothing more than continue to sleep. Her eyes trailed from the blank wall in front of her to the source of the knocking: Pepper, who stood arms crossed and unimpressed in the door way.

“You need to get up,” Pepper said, moving to Dresden’s window to lower the tint and allow sunshine to seep in, “I’m making you go to school.”

“No ,” Dresden moaned, pulling her duvet tighter around her body. Rationally she knew that she should get out of bed. The amount of school she missed was starting to outweigh the amount she attended and she’s already stayed home both Monday and Tuesday instead of going to school. Dresden also knew that she had apperances to keep up. There were people in her life who would start to worry if she missed another day and others who would be angry, and both were emotions she hated to have directed at her.

“Yes,” Pepper replied, pulling Dresden’s duvet away from her, “If you don’t get dressed now you’ll be late.” 

“But I don’t want to get out of bed,” she groaned as she held tightly to her duvet in an attempt to stop Pepper from stealing it.

“Nobody wants to get out of bed but we all do,” Pepper responded, “Now, I have a meeting in LA in an hour so I’m leaving, but I will know if you don’t get out of bed.”

As Pepper walked out of the room, Dresden sighed and sat up in bed. She was awake now and no matter how much she wanted to sleep she would never be able to now. With another sigh, she got out of bed and made her way to her closet. After a moment of staring tiredly at the hanging clothes, she grabbed a shirt and skirt that almost met her school’s dress code. With a yawn, she completed her outfit with a pair of moccasins and gathered her school stuff. As she did, she glanced at the time on her phone and realized that Pepper had lied to her about the time; Dresden had at least an hour before she needed to leave for school. With a roll of her eyes, she made her way down to the kitchen. 

Unlike yesterday, this time she noticed the presence of someone else. The boy she now knew to be Loki sat in the exact spot he had the day before. This time, he stared blankly at a book that sat on the counter in front of him and looked like he might fall asleep any second. Without acknowledging him, Dresden poured herself a cup of coffee. As an afterthought she poured a second cup, her conversation with her father in mind. She set it down in front of him before sitting down in the next chair over. He glanced from the cup to her before following her example and sipping from it. “So, you’re Loki.” He nodded curtly before turning his attention back to the book. “Norse God of mischief, huh?” she said, trying to spark up a conversation. 

Loki immedietly tensed up, “Yes,” he said sharply before flipping the page of his book.

“That’s cool.” she muttered, trying to decide whether or not to continue attempting conversation. He obviously didn’t want to talk, and honestly neither did she, but her father wanted her to be nice and that involved making him feel welcome. "Are you liking it here?" 

“I’m trying to read,” he practically sneered, not taking his eyes off of the page of his book.

“Sorry,” Dresden muttered, No reason to be rude about it she added to herself. In their two interactions, he hadn’t done much to make her like him and at this point it felt like it was unlikely that she ever would. Not only was he a psychopath, but he made a terrible first impression. It really wasn’t her first impression of him though, it was her second. Her first impression of him had was months ago in New York and that impression wasn’t just going to go away. With an internal sigh, she returned to drinking her coffee and mentally planning out her day. 

After breakfast, she would drive herself to school and attempt to find her best friend Jess. Dresden knew she would have some explaining to do, especially since Jess didn’t really approve of Dresden’s tendency to skip school. After that would come classes and lunch-time study hall to make up for missed classes. Just thinking about her day left Dresden feeling defeated. Every day was exactly the same and she hated it. It took everything she had not to go back in bed and hide from her responsibilities. She realized that someone was talking to her and she turned her attention to her father who was trying to talk to her. 

“Drez?” he questioned.

“Sorry, what did you say?” she asked, glancing from her father to Loki, who was watching with a tired curiosity. 

“I have a meeting with your principal after school so I’m going to drive you,” he repeated.

“Oh, right. I forgot about that,” she nodded. Her principal had been trying to meet with her father for two weeks now. The appointment had been rescheduled twice already and Dresden still wasn’t sure what it was about. “Why are you having the meeting again?”

“I’d hoped that you would ask, I even made a list,” he said, pulling out his phone and flipping through a couple of screens, “You’ve had 10 unexplained absences since January, you’re late to almost every class, they suspect you’ve been skipping classes, you haven’t been handing in assignments, your GPA has fallen an entire point, you don’t follow the dress code, you argue with teachers, and apparently refuse to participate in class.”

Dresden hesitated, surprised by the list. When it was all put together, it made her sound like a horrible student. The list made her sound like the person she tried so hard not to be: someone who skated by solely on their name. It wasn’t like she didn’t try in school; she attempted every assignment and studied for all of her tests. If it wasn’t for assignments and class participation she would be top of her class. “That would do it,” she mumbled, completely understanding her principal’s eagerness to meet with Tony.

“Yeah, it would do it. It would also get you pretty damn grounded but we’ll talk about that after school,” her father replied, giving her a surprisingly serious look, “I need to stop by SI before I drop you off so we need to leave now.”  
“Why do you and Pepper always have places to be?” Dresden mumbled to herself, feeling as though they were purposely trying to rush her. 

"It's because we actually do stuff with our lives," her father mocked, putting a hand on her back, "Come on, let's get going."

"Okay," she sighed, downing the rest of her coffee before following her father to the garage. The drive was normal if not quiet and before long she found herself waiting in the car while her father went inside. She turned the radio up loud and reclined the passenger seat before closing her eyes. Her father's comment earlier had been mildly offensive. How could he imply that she never did anything with her life when she did so much? It wasn't like she ever sat around doing nothing. Dresden didn’t have time to do nothing. All of her free time was taken up by school work and the people in her life. A large amount of her time was spent making sure that the other people in her life were doing alright. 

Everyone in her life seemed to have so much more to deal with than she did, and she needed to make sure that they were okay. With her father that meant making sure she took away the bottle of whiskey before he drank the whole thing and with Pepper it meant making sure Pepper took a break from work every night so she didn’t overwork herself. It seemed like Dresden was constantly worried about things like that. A quick glance at the clock told her that her father had already been gone for 20 minutes, and that they were now running late. Slightly annoyed, she took the car keys out of the ignition and went into the building.

“Hey,” she said, leaning on the reception desk, “Do you know where my father went?”

The receptionist looked confused for a moment before she realized Dresden wasn’t just some random teenager. The woman grabbed folded piece of paper off of her desk and handed it to Dresden, “He had to leave, but asked me to give you this.”

Worried, Dresden unfolded the paper the note her father had scribbled on it:

_Sorry_

Emergency. Have to go fight bad guys, drive yourself to school. See you this afternoon. 

-Dad.

She felt her stomach drop and knew immediately that today was going to be horrible. It had been three years and she still wasn’t used to her father disappearing to “fight bad guys” as he had so eloquently put it. Every time he left at the drop of a hat her whole body became consumed by worry. What he did was dangerous and she had almost lost him too many times not to worry for his safety. With a quick smile to the secretary, Dresden folded the note back up and stuck it in her pocket. Maybe going to school would help ease her worry. Her friends could distract her from the thoughts of what her father was doing, and the assignments would give her something to do. Deep down, she knew this was a dim hope and that she wouldn’t be okay until her father was home safe. Not only that, but school would just add to her worry and the whole day would just snowball until she hit the bottom of the hill exploded with a mental breakdown. 

Briefly, she debated going home and curling up in bed. Instead of going to school, she could eat ice-cream and watch re-runs of medical dramas. Of course she knew that would just get her in more trouble. Slowly, Dresden returned to her father’s car and drove herself to school.

* * *

The clock on the wall ticked, slowly marking time. With every motion of the second hand, Dresden could feel her hope dissipate. Her father had promised he would be back in time for his meeting, but it had been half an hour since school had let out and he still wasn’t anywhere to be found. It wasn’t the meeting at her school that she was worried about. Sure, her principal would be annoyed and she would stay on academic probation but it would all be worked out soon enough. No, she wasn’t worried about school because school didn’t matter; there were more important things in Dresden’s life. Right now, she was worried about her father. 

It had been 8 hours since he had left and she had yet to hear from him. What if this was it? The last mission, the one that he would never return from. Maybe he’d been hurt badly and was currently laying somewhere unable to return home, or maybe the bad guys were holding him captive. Unable to sit alone with her thoughts any longer, Dresden got out of the uncomfortable plastic chair outside the principals office and walked out of the office. She would call Pepper, maybe Pepper had heard something. And if not Pepper, Rhodey, or Bruce, or really anyone. As Dresden made her way to her father’s car she found herself wondering what it was like for her friends who had normal parents. It was quite possible that the reason her friends did so much more than her was because they had the time. Maybe if her father had a normal job she would do homework instead of worrying that something had gone wrong and preparing for the worst.

As Dresden walked to her father’s car she pulled out her phone and dialed Pepper only to reach a secretary who informed her that Pepper wasn't available and was going to be home later than expected. As she sat down in the driver's seat, she decided to try Rhodey next. Even if he hadn't heard from her father he would be able to look into his whereabouts. This time, her call reached who it was intended for but he didn’t know anything. He did, however, promise to look into it. She started up the car and made her way home, continuing to work her way through her contacts list.

By the time she reached her house, Rhodey had called Dresden back and assured her that Tony would be home within the hour. Despite what she had hoped, this did little to alleviate her worry; it wasn’t likely that she would stop worrying until her father was safely inside the house. _Within the hour_ she told herself as she set her textbooks down in the living room and went to the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea. _He’s alive, and he’ll be home within the hour_ she repeated to herself as she leaned against a counter. It was odd, knowing that her father was safe but still worrying about his safety. It was a feeling that was new since the events of New York, one that had resulted from her fathers slowly declining mental state. 

When her father had started having panic attacks, Dresden had started constantly worrying that he was on the edge of having one. With the hours he spent locked in his workshop she rarely knew how he was doing and that just caused her to worry further. With a sigh, she poured hot water into a mug and headed back to the living room to attempt to distract herself until her father came home. Instead of finding the stack of textbooks, she found them spread out on the ground around Loki who sat with one of them in his lap.

Loki still hadn’t said anything nice to her, and took almost every chance to be snotty to her, so she’d all but given up being nice to him. Why he thought it was okay for him to just go through her stuff she didn’t know, but this was the 3rd time now, and she’d already asked him to stop. She snatched the book out of his hands, irritated with him.

“I was reading that, mortal,” he snapped sitting up, “Give it back!”

Dresden closed the book and held it against her chest, “No, it’s mine!”

“Give it back,” he said again, his eyes seeming to flash. Suddenly Dresden was over come with the desire to give him the book back. Slowly, she started to hand it to him before realizing what she was doing. She shook her head to clear it, then glared at Loki.

“What was that?” she asked suspiciously, “What did you just do to me?”

“Damn it!” Loki muttered to himself, “That should have worked!” 

Dresden raised an eyebrow, “Were you trying to, like, hypnotize me or something?”

“No, I was just being convincing,” he scowled, crossing his arms, “Just let me read that book.”

Dresden glanced down at the page he was reading from her history book and shook her head, “Are you seriously reading a Norse Myth?”

“So what if I am,” Loki replied, leaning back and slouching down, “Just let me finish it.”

Loki’s eyes flashed again, but Dresden was too busy flipping through the book, “A little homesick are we?”

“No,” Loki scoffed. Dresden glanced up at him and raised an eyebrow, knowing that he was lying, “Okay, fine maybe I am. So what?”

Dresden smirked at how defensive he was being. Such a typical teenage boy, not wanting to show emotional weakness. Though Dresden herself did have a tendency to shove emotions deep down inside as well, so maybe just a teenage thing. Maybe he’d been so rude lately because he was homesick. Acting up because his parents had banished him and he wouldn’t ever return back home. Honestly, Dresden was just happy to be having a half decent conversation with the boy. “Nothing, I mean, it’s normal.”

“Yes, I know very well that this is a normal mortal feeling. Now may I finish reading the book?” Loki snapped.

Dresden sighed, “Okay, but you have to be careful.”

Loki rolled his eyes, “What do you think I’m going to do to it?”

“Fold down the pages, or spill something on it or write in the margins, and my teacher will hate me if I break her book.” Dresden replied, utterly serious. Her history teacher was literally the scariest woman alive, and took books very seriously. If Dresden brought that book back in less that perfect condition, she wouldn’t be surprised if the woman smacked her. 

“You offend my intelligence. I know how to read a book, I’m not Thor.” Loki replied, taking the book form her. Dresden stood there for a second processing the sly insult he’d just passed Thor, then sat on the floor and grabbed another one of her textbooks. They continued like this, Dresden going from doing Chemistry to silently watching Loki read, intrigued by him. 

Everything about him was typical of a teenage boy, but something about him was just so very different. Normally, someone reading a book would shift often, but he never moved, and he mouthed the words as he read them, occasionally saying one out loud to figure it out. His eyes never left the book, and he even started to look less stuck up. From the way he held himself now, you could really tell he was a royal immortal and not just a teenage boy. Before long the front door opened, and her father walked in looking slightly worse for wear, “Dad!” Dresden said, relived, walking over to hug him. 

“You realize that as the father I’m supposed to worry about you, not the other way around, right?” he said, returning her hug, “I think you called just about everybody that I know.”

“I’m allowed to worry Dresden replied as her father moved to pour himself a drink. 

“Dresden, you realize Loki’s reading one of your history books, right?” he asked.

“Yes, she does. She’s been watching me read for about an hour now,” Loki replied, still not moving or taking his eyes off the book. 

Dresden blushed, knowing if she protested she’d be lying. That entire time, she’d thought he was absorbed by his book, and wouldn’t notice her! Tony grinned at her before sitting down in a chair, falling back into his life like nothing abnormal had happened today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the kudos!


End file.
